piekfein

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German

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Etymology

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From Low German püükfien, tautological compound of püük + fien, both roughly “excellent, fine, clean, honest”.

The former is a borrowing from Dutch puik, from Middle Dutch puuc, from Old Dutch *puiken, from Proto-West Germanic *pūka, *pūga, from Pre-Germanic *pūkk, of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *buk-, *bu-, *beu- (to blow, swell), assuming an original sense of "bag made from skin."[1][2] The latter is from Old French fin, cognate with German fein, English fine.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈpiːkˈfaɪ̯n/
  • Audio:(file)

Adjective

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piekfein (strong nominative masculine singular piekfeiner, not comparable)

  1. (informal, often mildly derogatory, otherwise dated) posh; fancy
    Hau! Du siehst ja piekfein aus!
    Wow! You’re looking posh! (dated)
    Die haben uns da in ein piekfeines Restaurant eingeladen.
    They invited us to a mighty fancy restaurant. (somewhat impressed, but also dismissive)

Declension

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Descendants

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  • Dutch: piekfijn

References

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  1. ^ Guus Kroonen (2013) “puka”, in Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 400
  2. ^ Kroonen, G. (2009). Consonant and Vowel Gradation in the Proto-Germanic n-Stems. PhD dissertation, University of Leiden, p. 126-127